Polls committee provides hotline, mail box services
Polls committee provides hotline, mail box services
JAKARTA (JP): The National General Elections Monitoring Committee will open hotline telephone and mail box services for people to report of any wrongdoing committed in the run up and during the 1997 general elections, a committee official says.
"People can immediately inform us by phone, facsimile, or mail if they find any violations during the whole process of the 1997 general elections," Hari Haryono, secretary to the National General Elections Monitoring Committee, said yesterday.
Speaking to reporters at the Attorney General's Office, Hari said that all reports of wrongdoing will instantly be responded to whenever they reach the committee secretariat.
However the monitoring committee would only follow up on reports which are clear and reasonable, he added.
"The sender has to give complete information, state his or her complete address and personal data," he said.
The monitoring committee has not decided on the numbers of the hotline telephone and mail box services, but guaranteed that the services will be opened by the time voters' registration begin in May.
Registration will be carried out between May 1 and July 20.
Hari said the monitoring committee will only monitor the implementation of five stages of the poll's overall 12 stages.
The monitoring committee will supervise voters' registration, the election campaign, ballot casting, vote counting, and the establishment of the poll's result, he said.
The monitoring committee for general elections is staffed with top government and military officials, as well as representatives of the three election contestants -- the ruling Golkar, the United Development Party (PPP) and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI).
Among the 16 members of the committee are Lt. Gen. Mohammad Ma'ruf and Maj. Gen. Arie J. Kumaat from the Armed Forces (ABRI), and Abdul Gafur and Agung Laksono from Golkar.
Others include Yudo Paripurno and Tosari Widjaja of the PPP, Panangian Siregar and Ismunandar of the PDI, and A. Hamid Effendi and Suko Martono from the government.
Hari said the monitoring committee members will be divided into three groups. "One group will monitor the general elections stages in the western Indonesia, the second group in the central Indonesia, and the third in eastern Indonesia."
Hari ruled out the possibility of abolishing the "silent week" after the campaign from the 1997 general elections, saying that the whole week will be used by all the general elections committee nationwide to hold preparations for balloting day.
"How can we tidy up and organize the security arrangements if the silent week is used for campaign sessions," he said.
He said the silent week is stipulated in the Law No.1/1985 on the general elections.
The silent week is intended to cool off the situation after the usually tense, and often violent, election campaign before polling day.
PDI chairperson Megawati Soekarnoputri and PPP chairman Ismail Hasan Metareum this week suggested that the "silent week" should be abolished because it had been abused by Golkar to intimidate voters.
Hari also maintained that all violations occurred during the previous general elections, have been followed up with court proceedings.
"There were 1,092 criminal violations, 975 administrative violations, and 524 political violations. All were settled in courts."
Ismail Hasan however has maintained that none of the violations that his party reported to the election monitoring committee had been followed up, let alone prosecuted. (imn)